Camille Corot was much beloved during his lifetime for his ethereal, dreamy landscapes that often combined scenes from mythology with a very personal interpretation of nature observed. Claude Monet himself said, "There
is only one master here: Corot." In this painting, the fabled musician Orpheus--who beguiled the Greek gods to allow him to retrieve his beloved wife, who had been fatally bitten by a snake--leads her tenderly
from the underworld. In ancient times, it was believed that the deceased continued to exist as spirits, seen here gathered in small groups beneath the delicate trees. Corot, a great music lover, has imbued this work
with a sense of melancholy lyricism that hints at the tragic end of the story: Orpheus loses Eurydice forever when he turns to look at her before reaching the world of the living. The sense of filtered reality is enhanced
by Corot's extraordinarily subtle use of color. He strikes a wistfully sweet tonal chord, carefully modulating a narrow range of grays, greens, and blues. Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld looks forward to
the artist's signature paintings, the Souvenirs and Memoires, in which Corot removes all narrative elements and lets his landscapes stand as "pure" objects.
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In the haziness, a young poet named Orpheus leads his wife Eurydice from the murky depths of Hell, otherwise known as the Underworld. In Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s creation for the Academie’s Salon du Paris, Orpheus
Leading Eurydice from the Underworld, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Carot, French, 1861, Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, we see an image of love and loss combined with hope and despair in one single piece of art.
Legend has it that when Eurydice died and passed on into the Underworld, Orpheus made a deal with the ruler Hades. If Orpheus could lead Eurydice out of the Underworld without looking back at her, she would be allowed
to return to the land of the living. But, right before they reach the entrance, not quite on the other side, Orpheus turns unable to resist looking at his beloved wife and loses her forever to the ruler of Hades and
the Underworld.
The painting itself is a massive masterpiece like no other. This oil on canvas composition, with its sheer size alone, conveys a sense of massive storytelling within an intimate space, making the story background of the
composition, beyond the river Styx, we see the despair and grief of the lost and alone within the enveloping haziness of the Underworld. While in the foreground, on the outer banks of the river Styx, we see Orpheus
and Eurydice at the entrance to the Underworld. Orpheus shields his eyes with his lyre, a symbol of undying love, while leading Eurydice with her blank expression towards the entrance. This image is the moment right
before Orpheus turns around, thinking they have reached the other side of the entrance to the Underworld. Her gaze is lifeless, as if she has already given into the fact that she is already lost to the depths of the
Underworld, almost knowing that she will be a permanent resident.
There is a major sense of depth here as the closer you get to Orpheus and Eurydice the sharper the image gets. The river Styx marks the distance between the two different painting techniques. In the foreground, exemplified
by the crisp, defined lines of the classical French painting of the time, while beyond the river, the further back you go, you will get the glimpse of a very early stage of the Impressionism movement with its soft,
blurred lines which make the forms of the lost souls almost melt into the background, as if they are merely part of the scenery and not of the storyline itself. They further add to the composition a sense of loss and
despair. Although they are there, heads bowed and huddled together, they seem to take up a hazily lit area in the center of the work, nearest the shores of the river, which may symbolize the closeness to death for all
humans, the actual idea of impermanence within this world. This very realistic and powerful driving force makes this painting an important work of art amongst the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s exquisite French painting
collection.
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